Despite all those Middle East tensions you’re probably aware of (er, Syria, Libya…), those tourists keep on coming to the Holy Land! In fact, the numbers for the first four months of the year are up on last year’s record breaking year.
OK, it’s a small 4%, but it’s still a rise, an impressive one considering the bad press the region is experiencing right now.
Some 900,000 tourists visited Israel in during January-April 2011.
Our old pal at the Tourism Ministry, Minister Stas Misezhnikov, was chuffed with the figures:
“The Tourism Ministry must contend with the geopolitical situation in the region that is influencing incoming tourism into Israel as well. In recent weeks, the ministry initiated several marketing activities to increase demand for tourism to Israel and will continue with these activities over the coming months. Marketing activities have succeeded in increasing the number of incoming tourists who stay more than one night in Israel and, as a result, tourism’s percentage of the GDP has grown – revenue from tourism in the period January through April has grown to $940 million, 3% more than the same period last year.”
We’re still predicting a record year for tourism numbers to Israel, though the tensions throughout the Middle East will mean it’s a close run thing…